Interdisciplinary immersion course with international travel to Nicaragua from, March 18-28. A 9-credit cluster consisting of Art 140; Introduction to Digital Art, AME/WST 389 Culture, Consciousness, and Community, and ENG 389: Stories and Identity: Reading and Writing the American Experience.
En Cantado(Enchanted)
ReplyDeletePaulette and Franklin began our experience of riding caballos(horses) with thoughtful consideration of each rider and precisely matched our personalities with the horse best suited for us undividually. The perfect experience had begun. Horse and rider began the "clip, clop" over the brick streets of San Juan. The Nicaraguan residents greeted us with warm welcomes and kind words. Our guide, Franklin weaved us up and down streets assuring a full experience of the community. Upon leaving town we merged our single file formation into a beautiful group ride. The brick streets ended and we were in lands dedicated to food production. Farmers homes were nestled in the hills over looking their crops of bananas, pineapples, pitayas and mangos. We rode high up dusty ridges of dirt paths that only promised a foot of security forcing us to submit all of our reservations to our caballos. To our right not only held drops of thousands of feet but the smoke and smolder of Volcan Masaya that wafted its scent of sulfur across the valley and through our hair. Franklin kindly stopped and photographed us individually and as a group to never allow us to forget. With the sun beating on us raising the temperature to over 90 degrees and a wind from one mountain to another over 50 MPH we began our dissent back to La Mariposa. Views of Panama, La Mariposa and San Juan allowed us to sense our own existence in the mountains of Nicaragua. The horses became our partners and the guides-especiallyFranklin, became our friends. Six North American students from the University of Maine in Augusta combined cultures, created a community and raised our consciousness of a "magnifico"(magnificent) country.